JPH07324795A - Controlling method for vapor compression type air conditioner - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To replace with larger additional installation, new construction and larger capacity of an indoor unit without increasing the capacity of the unit. CONSTITUTION:The method for controlling a vapor compression type air conditioner comprises the steps of (S4, S5) recognizing the additional operation of an indoor unit until the gross capacity (X) of an operating indoor unit reaches an upper limit capacity (Z=1.3Y) decided based on the capacity (Y) of an outdoor unit, (S4, S6) receiving an operation start signal, when the signal of the stopping indoor unit exceeding the upper limit capacity by the gross capacity is received and setting the indoor unit to be started for the operation to a standby state, and starting the operation of the indoor unit when the number of the operating indoor units is decreased and even if the standby indoor unit is operated, when the gross capacity becomes the upper limit capacity or less.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a refrigerant such as CFC discharged from a compressor driven by a driving device such as an engine,
Vapor compression type that circulates between at least one outdoor unit equipped with an outdoor heat exchanger and a plurality of indoor units equipped with an indoor heat exchanger to perform heating / cooling and hot water supply (hereinafter referred to as cooling / heating etc.) The present invention relates to control of an air conditioner.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a vapor compression type air conditioner for cooling and heating by circulating a refrigerant such as CFC compressed and discharged by a compressor between at least one outdoor unit and a plurality of indoor units, The structure illustrated in FIG. 3 is conventionally known.

This type of air conditioner circulates a required refrigerant between an outdoor unit 1 having an outdoor heat exchanger and an indoor unit 2 having an indoor heat exchanger by a compressor, a valve mechanism or the like not shown. The indoor unit 2 is used for cooling and heating, and in this conventional example, the circulation supply of the refrigerant to each of the eight indoor units indicated by reference signs A1 to A8 is performed.
The control device 3 controls individually.

The total capacity of the indoor unit 2 (total capacity of the indoor heat exchanger) (X) is generally the outdoor unit 1
Is about 30% more than the capacity (the capacity of the outdoor heat exchanger) (Y). This is because it is rare that all of the indoor units A1 to A8 connected to the outdoor unit 1 are operated at full capacity at the same time, and if it is a short time, the operation of the compressor will not be particularly disturbed. It depends on the reason.

[0005]

However, in the air conditioner having the above-mentioned configuration, the existing indoor unit is replaced with one having a slightly larger capacity in response to an increase in the air conditioning load, or a small capacity and a low frequency of use. Even when adding a small number of indoor units, the operation of all the indoor units exceeds the specified capacity, so that there is a problem that the warning light is turned on and the operation cannot be performed.

That is, conventionally, unless the outdoor unit is changed to a large-capacity unit or the outdoor units having a required capacity are connected in parallel, the indoor unit can be replaced with a larger-capacity unit or the indoor unit can be added. Since it could not be done, there was a problem that a large increase in cost was inevitable even when dealing with a slight change in the air-conditioning environment, and there was a problem to solve this problem.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, the present invention relates to the indoor heat exchange between the refrigerant compressed and discharged by the compressor and at least one outdoor unit having an outdoor heat exchanger. In a method for controlling a vapor compression type air conditioner that performs cooling and heating by circulating between a plurality of indoor units equipped with a heater,

Until the total capacity of the operating indoor unit reaches the upper limit capacity determined based on the capacity of the outdoor unit, the additional operation of the indoor unit is permitted, and the total capacity exceeds the upper limit capacity. A first control method in which even if an operation start signal for the

Until the total capacity of the operating indoor unit reaches the upper limit capacity determined based on the capacity of the outdoor unit, additional operation of the indoor unit is permitted, and the total capacity exceeds the upper limit capacity. When the operation start signal is received, the indoor unit that should start operation in response to this signal is placed in the operation standby state, and the total capacity is the upper limit even when the number of operating indoor units decreases and the standby indoor unit is operated. A second control method for starting the operation of this indoor unit when the capacity becomes less than or equal to;

Until the total capacity of the operating indoor unit reaches the upper limit capacity determined based on the capacity of the outdoor unit, additional operation of the indoor unit is permitted, and the total capacity exceeds the upper limit capacity. When the operation start signal for the indoor unit is received, the operation display lamp of the indoor unit that should start operation in response to this signal is turned off or blinks to put it into operation standby, and the number of operating indoor units decreases Even when the total capacity becomes equal to or less than the upper limit capacity, a third control method for starting the operation of the indoor unit is provided.

[0011]

According to the present invention, the additional operation of the indoor units is sequentially performed until the total capacity of the operating indoor units reaches the upper limit capacity determined based on the capacity of the outdoor unit, and the total capacity exceeds the upper limit capacity. When there is an operation start signal for a stopped indoor unit, the additional operation of the indoor unit will not be performed even if this signal is received, so replace the indoor unit with a larger capacity regardless of the capacity of the outdoor unit. You can add or expand.

In the case of claims 2 and 3, the additional operation of the indoor units is sequentially performed until the total capacity of the operating indoor units reaches the upper limit capacity determined based on the capacity of the outdoor unit, and the total capacity exceeds the upper limit capacity. If there is an operation start signal for a stopped indoor unit that exceeds the limit, the indoor unit that should start operation in response to this signal enters the operation standby state, the number of operating indoor units decreases, and it is in standby. Even if the indoor unit is operated, the operation of the indoor unit is started when the total capacity becomes equal to or less than the upper limit capacity. Therefore, also in this case, the capacity of the outdoor unit is the same as in the case of claim 1. It is possible to replace or increase the capacity of the indoor unit irrelevantly, and in the case of claim 3, the operation display lamp of the waiting indoor unit is used to operate the indoor unit. It is possible to inform the things is waiting.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to FIGS. Note that, in order to facilitate understanding, in FIG. 1 as well, parts having the same functions as the parts described in FIG. 3 are given the same reference numerals.

The vapor compression type air conditioner of the present invention shown in FIG. 1 has one outdoor unit 1 equipped with an outdoor heat exchanger 11.
And a plurality of indoor units 2, specifically, 16 indoor units A1 to A16 each equipped with an indoor heat exchanger 12 to circulate a refrigerant to perform cooling and heating. The total capacity (total capacity of the indoor heat exchanger 12) is, for example, 1.4 times, that is, 40% more than the capacity of the outdoor unit 1 (capacity of the outdoor heat exchanger 11) (Y).

Then, the operation of the indoor unit 2 is controlled by the control device 3 equipped with a microcomputer or the like, for example, as shown in FIG.

That is, the control of the indoor unit 2 by the control device 3 is started as a main control subroutine for controlling the entire device when any one of the 16 indoor units 2 starts to operate, and step S1 Then, for each indoor unit other than the indoor unit that is already operating, it is determined whether or not a control signal for starting operation is randomly input for each unit by using, for example, a random number, etc. That is, when there is no additional operation start signal, the process returns to step S1, and when YES, that is, when there is an additional operation start signal, the process proceeds to step S2 to recognize the indoor unit 2 that is already in operation.

The operation or operation of the indoor unit 2 in the present invention means a state in which the refrigerant is circulated and supplied to the corresponding indoor unit, and the air conditioner power switch of the indoor unit is turned on by a remote control or the like. Even if it is done, a state in which the supply of the refrigerant is interrupted due to the room temperature reaching the set temperature or the like is called a stop in the present invention.

In step S3, based on the recognition of the operating indoor unit 2 in step S2, the total capacity (X) of the operating indoor units, for example, the indoor unit A1 has already been operated, and the operation start signal of the indoor unit A2 is transmitted. When newly input, the total capacity (X) is calculated as the indoor unit A1.
Capacity (a1) and the capacity (a2) of the indoor unit A2 to be operated this time are defined and calculated, and the total capacity (X) thus obtained and the capacity of the outdoor unit 1 are calculated. An upper limit capacity determined in advance based on (Y) (for example, Z =
1.3Y) in step S4.

Two of the indoor units 2 having 16 units installed
When there is an operation start request for the unit, usually X ≤
Since it is determined to be Z, in this case, the process proceeds to step S5 and the operation of the indoor unit A2 is started.

When the number of indoor units in operation is increased by repeating the above-described control of steps S1 to S5, and when it is determined NO in step S4 at a certain point, the process proceeds to step S6 and NO is determined. The operation of the base indoor unit Ai is not performed, and the operation display lamp 4 provided in each indoor unit is turned off or blinks to indicate that the indoor unit Ai for which the operation start request has been made enters the operation standby state. Then, the process returns to step S1.

While the control of steps S1 to S6 is repeated, the power supply switch is turned off because the air conditioning becomes unnecessary, the room temperature reaches the set temperature, and the circulating supply of the refrigerant is interrupted. When the indoor unit in the operation stopped state appears and the result of the capacity comparison in step S4 is YES, the process proceeds to step S5, and the operation of the indoor unit Ai which has been in the operation standby state is started.

When the indoor unit Ai is already in a standby state and it is determined in the next step S1 that there is an indoor unit Aj that has received a new operation start signal, it is already operated in step S3. Total capacity (X), which is the sum of the capacity of the indoor unit and the capacity of the indoor unit Aj
Is calculated, the capacity is determined in step S4, and if the result is YES, the process proceeds to step S5 to start the operation of the indoor unit Aj, and if the result is NO, the process proceeds to step S6 to change the indoor unit Aj. The indoor unit Ai and the indoor unit Ai are controlled to be in a standby state.

In this way, if the control for randomly checking whether or not the operation start signal is input in step S1 for all the indoor units that are not in operation is adopted, the indoor unit having a large capacity is used. If a request to start operation is given to an indoor unit with a small capacity while the unit is in standby mode, the operation of a large-capacity indoor unit will not be performed depending on the capacity capacity without keeping this small-capacity indoor unit in a standby state for a long time. There is an advantage that it can be operated promptly prior to.

Of course, the order in which the operation start signal is input,
In other words, the order in which the operation standby state is entered is stored in the RAM or the like, and the control can be performed such that the operation start of the indoor units is sequentially acknowledged in the order of the operation standby when the capacity becomes available. The indoor unit may be configured to give priority to the start of operation.

The determination work in step S1 as to whether or not the operation start signal has been input is performed for all the indoor units that are not in operation at the same time or one by one, and the operation is started for any indoor unit. It is also possible to control so that the time when no signal is input is determined to be No, and the time when the operation start signal is input to at least one unit is determined to be Yes.

When it is determined whether or not the operation start signal is input as described above, the operation start signal may be simultaneously input to a plurality of indoor units. In this case, therefore, in step S3, each indoor unit corresponds to each indoor unit. The total capacity (X) is calculated, and the total capacity (X) is calculated in step S4.
The indoor unit that is determined to be YES and proceeds to step S5 to perform the operation, and the indoor unit that is determined to be NO to step S6 may be placed in operation standby.

Further, as shown by the broken line from step S6, it is possible to configure to return to step S2, or to install a plurality of outdoor units 1 in parallel.

[0028]

As described above, according to the first method of the present invention, the additional operation of the indoor units is sequentially performed until the total capacity of the operating indoor units reaches the upper limit capacity determined based on the capacity of the outdoor unit, If there is an operation start signal for a stopped indoor unit that will cause the total capacity to exceed the upper limit capacity, the additional operation of the indoor unit is not performed even if this signal is received, so it has nothing to do with the capacity of the outdoor unit. The indoor unit can be replaced with a larger one or can be added.

In the second and third methods, the additional operation of the indoor units is sequentially performed until the total capacity of the operating indoor units reaches the upper limit capacity determined based on the capacity of the outdoor unit, and the total capacity is the above-mentioned. When there is an operation start signal for a stopped indoor unit that exceeds the upper limit capacity, the indoor unit that should start operation in response to this signal enters the operation standby state, and the number of operating indoor units decreases Even when the inner indoor unit is operated, when the total capacity becomes equal to or less than the upper limit capacity, the operation of this indoor unit is started. Therefore, in this case as well, similar to the first method, regardless of the capacity of the outdoor unit. You can replace the indoor unit with one with a larger capacity or add more.

In the third method, when there is an operation start signal for a stopped indoor unit whose total capacity exceeds the upper limit capacity, the indoor unit that should start operation in response to this signal Since the operation standby state is entered with the operation indicator lamp turned off or blinking, it can be informed that the indoor unit is not stopped due to a failure but because it is waiting for operation, which simplifies maintenance management. Become.

In any case, according to the present invention, the operation is automatically switched appropriately between the indoor units having a small air conditioning load and a low operating rate, so that it is not necessary to increase the capacity of the outdoor unit so much. Also, replacing the outdoor unit with one with a larger capacity, or adding an indoor unit to a specific room where the air conditioning load has increased without adding,
Even if it becomes necessary to install an indoor unit in another room, it is possible to easily cope with it, so that it is possible to respond to fluctuations in air conditioning load after installing the device at the minimum cost. Became.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a device configuration of an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a control procedure of one embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional technique.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 outdoor unit 2 indoor unit 3 control device 4 operation display lamp 11 outdoor heat exchanger 12 indoor heat exchanger

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A refrigerant which is compressed and discharged by a compressor is circulated between at least one outdoor unit having an outdoor heat exchanger and a plurality of indoor units having an indoor heat exchanger to cool and heat the room. In the control method of the vapor compression type air conditioner, the additional operation of the indoor unit is permitted until the total capacity of the operating indoor units reaches the upper limit capacity determined based on the capacity of the outdoor unit, and the total capacity is the upper limit capacity. A method for controlling a vapor compression type air conditioner, which is characterized in that even if an operation start signal for a stopped indoor unit, which exceeds the above condition, is received, this signal is ignored and the additional operation of the indoor unit is not performed. 2. The refrigerant discharged by being compressed by the compressor is circulated between at least one outdoor unit equipped with an outdoor heat exchanger and a plurality of indoor units equipped with an indoor heat exchanger to cool and heat the room. In the control method of the vapor compression type air conditioner, the additional operation of the indoor unit is permitted until the total capacity of the operating indoor units reaches the upper limit capacity determined based on the capacity of the outdoor unit, and the total capacity is the upper limit capacity. When an operation start signal for a stopped indoor unit that exceeds the above is received, the indoor unit that should start operation upon receiving this signal is placed in operation standby, and the number of operating indoor units decreases A method for controlling a vapor compression type air conditioner, which starts the operation of this indoor unit when the total capacity becomes equal to or less than the upper limit capacity even when it is operated. 3. A refrigerant compressed and discharged by the compressor is circulated between at least one outdoor unit having an outdoor heat exchanger and a plurality of indoor units having an indoor heat exchanger to cool and heat the room. In the control method of the vapor compression type air conditioner, the additional operation of the indoor unit is permitted until the total capacity of the operating indoor units reaches the upper limit capacity determined based on the capacity of the outdoor unit, and the total capacity is the upper limit capacity. When receiving the operation start signal for the indoor unit that is stopped, which is more than the Steam which is characterized in that when the total capacity becomes equal to or less than the upper limit capacity even if the indoor unit which is decreased and is on standby is operated, the operation of this indoor unit is started. Control method of compression type air conditioner.